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So here it is, Wednesday Comics, DC's big experiment, a revolutionary exercise in nostalgia and a perfect example of my belief that nostalgia has unrightly become a dirty word. Wednesday Comics was awesome and proof that we're nostalgic for a lot of things for a reason. Like everyone else, it's a bit of a tricky to thing to review, anthologies always are, so I'll focus on the concept more, taking time out to talk about some highlight.

Mark Chiarello needs to succeed Dan Didio as Executive Editor, he knows what comic fans want, comes up great, original ideas like this and Solo, and can bring in the big guns to give them credit. I was interested in Wednesday Comics when I knew Kyle Baker had a story, and Karl Kerschl had a story but when I read that Chiarello had got Gaiman and Allred for Metamorpho, that brought a weight the project that made me take it seriously. Cue segue, Metamorpho was definitely the highlight of this first issue. I'm a massive fan of the Silver Age stories of Haney and Kanigher so this really appealed to me. Gaiman captured the spirit of the time really well, and Allred knocked it out of the park, like Metamorpho was created with the knowledge that one day Allred would come to draw him.

Other highlights were Kyle Baker's Hawkman, I like Hawkman anyway but Baker brought something new to the character, a fierce protector of the skies, like Namor of the air and I loved it. Karl Kerschl's Flash was made for me, I'm a MASSIVE fan of Karl Kerschl, and I think my opinions on the Scarlet Speedster have been made clear in the past. I love the split format of the page, Kerschl really takes the format in his stride, giving us a superhero story and a romance one (that eventually will become on full-page story if I recall correctly). The two big surprises were Supergirl and Metal Men. I like Palmiotti well enough but didn't really think he was qualified enough to be listed amongst Gaiman, Gibbons, Busiek, etc but he really proved himself. Amanda Conner though, she just keeps getting better and better, the page worked really well as either a one page gag, or as the first part to a story. The same goes for Metal Men, I was really wary of Didio writing, I own every issue of Superboy he wrote, I knew what to expect, but I was shocked by how good it was. Like Supergirl, and all the good ones (I don't need to say anything about Adam Strange, everyone else has) it takes full advantage of the format.

The ones that fall flat are the ones that don't seem to understand the format. The page should work as a part and as a whole. Busiek's Green Lantern spends most of the page without the titular hero showing up (Probably a good thing thing, it is Hal Jordan) and Berganza's Teen Titans is mostly origin and history of the team with a confusing cliffhanger from Galloway. Caldwell's Wonder Woman falters for different reasons, there's too much story. Too many panels, art is too small and cluttered and so many word balloons cover too much of the art up.

I did love this comic though, it reminds of 52 in the way that I knew every week I'd have something to look forward to and something wouldn't disappoint. The only real problem I can find with Wednesday Comics is that it's eventually going to end.

Overall - 9

Best lines - "I'm sorry but you need to put me down, I don't belong to you" and "And so we flap"

I’m not the biggest fan of DC, but they’re always willing to try and pull off the “big project”, particularly in relation to their weekly series’. Previously we’ve had 52, Countdown and Trinity; now Wednesday comics follow the weekly release schedule, but with a unique twist. Wednesday Comics is published in a 14” x 20” broadsheet format, which is deliberately similar to the old Sunday newspaper comic sections. DC art director Mark Chiarello is responsible for this project, and he’s really brought not only a unique idea to fruition but brought in an A-grade ensemble of writers and artists to bring this project to life. Wednesday comics feature 15 different stories in each issue, each beautifully presented and showing a great emphasis on the art.

Reading Wednesday Comics was a unique experience; 15 independent stories, with a very different feel for each, and featuring some of the most breath-taking and unique art I’ve ever seen. Unfortunately with each story only having one page, we are plagued with every story being set-up, or in Wonder Woman’s case we have a very word-heavy page to try and make up for it. The up side to each story being only set-up, you can instantly get a feel for which stories you love or hate.

Out of the 15 tales there are obvious stand-outs, such as Paul Popes “Strange Adventures, Neil Gaiman’s “Metamorpho, Kerschl’s “Flash” and Gibbons’ “Kamandi”. As a first introduction to the character of Kamandi, one page had me wanting more. Breathtaking art and a great set up, had me wanting to read more about the character. And the hands down winner for me was the Flash story; with the page being broken up into two sections giving us two stories, one focusing on Barry Allen and the other on his wife Iris as she considers leaving him. The Wonder Woman story was by far the worst and the page was crammed to the point that it was hard to understand. And the Sergeant Rock and Green Lantern stories were rather lacklustre with no hook. The one thing I hope DC tries to do is take the popularity from this book and perhaps give some of these characters their own books, or at the least boost the popularity of some books already out there that may not be as well known.

The artists really seem to take advantage of the larger page sizes. From Kyle Baker’s larger panels to Ben Caldwell’s over crammed Wonder Woman story, we can see thoughtful and unique ideas in each tale. Each story had different aspects that I just took a step back and just admired, from the Noir styling in Deadman, to the golden age feel of Kamandi every page is unique and a joy to read.

From the one down side of storage this unique comic has so much to love. Wednesday Comics is a nostalgic take on Superhero comics by some of the greatest writers that I’ve ever read. Try and keep yourself open to this and you won’t be disappointed, Wednesday Comics is jammed with an incredible selection of diverse stories and beautiful art.

An overall score is hard to gauge because of the varying quality of stories but overall including art I’d give this an 8.

starlord wrote:who ever rated this at anything lower than an 8 can choke on my extra thin and tiny dick.

4 bucks for 12 set-ups that are the equivalent of the first page of a comic, about characters that I don't follow is not my thing. I can see why it is being so well received but I didn't like it nor do I like extra thin wieners... wait... I don't like big ones either.

48THRiLLS wrote:4 bucks for 12 set-ups that are the equivalent of the first page of a comic, about characters that I don't follow is not my thing. I can see why it is being so well received but I didn't like it nor do I like extra thin wieners... wait... I don't like big ones either.

The first weiner was toooo small. The second weiner was toooo big. But the third weiner was just right!

This was mostly comic gold. Comic gold, I tell you. Yes, lots of set up throughout but it was amazing to see how much I actually missed thought balloons and caption boxes describing the story. These may seem like things that are no longer useful in telling a comic book story but I completely disagree. They don't pull me out of a story-- they actually draw me in.

But enough about me getting on a soapbox complaining about how comics today suffer from denying their comicbookness, let's keep on target and discuss this thing. It's not all peaches and cream. There are some losers in here. Hawkman just sort of sits there. Wonder Woman is all over the place. Everything has beautiful, beautiful art but the stories vary widely in quality. The Kubert's effort doesn't really get us anywhere and seems like it could have included more story by shrinking up some of them panels.

Winners, at least in my book, are Flash Kamandi, Metamorpho, and Superman. They get more to the essence of whatever story their telling and give us great moments to get to know the characters. The Superman one gave me a better view of Superman than most of todays comics come close to... and the art was incredible. My favorite turned out to be Flash because we got two stories that both drew you in.

The challenge here is obviously to use the page wisely and give us a good story in only 12 oversized pages (if I'm getting the length of this series) and that means nothing can really be decompressed. They have to use that space and employ some old tricks to get the story done. I sort of miss that in my modern comics. You don't always have to spend 3 issues explaining Dr. Doom's latest plan to kill the Fantastic Four. It would be nice to see some of these techniques escape back into today's comics.

Or, maybe, I'm seeing what I want to see. It's possible that the next 11 issues will be all filler building to a finale and comics like Sgt. Rock and Hawkman certainly weren't dense stories. Heck, even one of my favorites, Superman, wasn't dense. It just really captured Supes' essence to me.

The only real trouble I have with this series is that the format doesn't really lead to a lot of repeat reading. The newsprint is already weak around the folds and it's almost intended to be disposable. I hope they find some way to collect these tales... possibly in some oversized book because I can see wanting to read a few of them over and over again... which would totally ruin the newspaper style comic I've got right now.

Wednesday Comics, you get a 9. I just wish you weren't so damn recyclable.